“Oh, I am indeed.”
He knew he gloated. But her surrender, even if not wholehearted, set him ablaze with excitement. He placed another kiss just above the feathery dark blond curls.
She studied him as if unsure whether he indeed prepared to rend her limb from limb like a lion. Foolish girl. He meant her to come apart, but never so drastically.
He still held her leg over his arm, opening her to his gaze. For a long time, he stared at the succulent pink folds. He drew deep of her scent. He felt more than lust, although lust was certainly part of what rushed through his veins. She reached into what he’d call his soul, if he hadn’t long ago lost his soul in dissipation.
Her breath emerged in jagged gasps, and the muscles under his hand were tight. He didn’t need to see her expression to know she was terrified.
In consideration of her uncertainty, he released her leg and slid back up her body to press a kiss that conveyed more tenderness than passion to her lips. Passion was present, but he reined it in, wanting to reassure. After a hesitation, she kissed him back. Predictably, passion broke its bonds, and the kiss turned fierce and hungry. By the time he drew away, he was breathing unsteadily, and his heart crashed like a drum.
For a shuddering moment, he buried his head in the smooth, damp skin at her shoulder. What was wrong with him? No other lover turned him so unrestrained and desperate.
“You won’t distract me,” he said unsteadily.
“You started it,” she said, equally breathlessly. Thank the Lord, she didn’t sound quite as frightened.
He raised his head and sent her a direct look. “And I’m going to finish it.”
He kissed a line across her collarbone and down to her breast. When he took her in his mouth, she cried out and raised her knees. He drew hard, and she trembled in immediate response.
How would she respond to a more intimate kiss? His blood seethed in expectation.
Before she could tense again, he kissed a path down the soft plain of her belly. She exhaled in a long, shuddering sigh.
Taking this as permission to continue, he nudged her legs farther apart and licked her long and luxuriously. Immediately, the heady taste of her, richer, stronger than the taste of her skin, filled his mouth.
Luscious.
She made a sound deep in her throat. Protest or encouragement? He didn’t know. But he couldn’t stop. He licked again, pausing to draw on the pulsing center. This time he had no trouble interpreting her moan as one of pleasure.
Elation filled him. He used his mouth and teeth and tongue, exploring the cleft, invading her, sipping the hot dew.
“Wicked…” she sighed.
Her hands curled in his hair, tugging in time with his depredations. She undulated under his mouth like the sea, and her sighs rose in a sweet crescendo. Tension filled her. Not the tension of fear. The tension of approaching climax.
He concentrated on bringing her to that ultimate peak. He loved the husky sounds she made, the writhing tension of her body. His senses closed in to contain nothing but him and this woman he pleasured.
Then, as he’d promised himself, she screamed with un-inhibited release. She convulsed under his mouth, pressing up into him so his tongue stabbed her, possessed her, stole her essence.
He didn’t stop. Even while she quivered, he built her response again. He wanted her world to change.
After this, she’d never forget him. His touch would be etched on her body forever.
Forever.
Because even as he sent her spiraling into ecstasy, he knew it was inevitable that she’d leave.
Diana stretched out in absolute exhaustion, her brain thick with languor. Her body throbbed with receding rapture. Ashcroft had battered her with bliss.
What a gift he’d given her. Her heart clenched hard as she struggled to lock him out. But the pleasure had cut too deep. The closeness had been too powerful.
God forgive her,
she could no longer deny he moved her emotions more profoundly than anyone she’d ever known.
Ashcroft sprawled over her, his head resting on her belly, his arms loose around her waist, his torso covering her legs. His face turned in profile, but she saw his satisfied smile. He looked remarkably innocent for a man who had just performed such a lascivious act. Unless one noted the sleek dampness of his lips. Damp with her, she recognized with a bone-deep thrill.